I bought and planted 3 Sunpatiens plants about 3 weeks ago in my balcony deck ledge flower box lined with coco liner.
Usually in my zone it's safe to plant first part of April.
Last week, for 3 days, we had a VERY unusual freeze!
Not one I've seen in years!
So I prepared the flower box by wrapping the entire bottom part with a soft styrofoam foil lined material. Then put tent stakes inside to create a tent with the covering. I covered first with a cotton cloth, then on top of that a heavy trash bag. I kept the bottom covering on the whole 3 days but opened the top part as the temps were 40's-50's during day with sun out.
It got down to 32 the first night, and we got 3 inches of snow!! The highs the next day in 50's.
I learned the second night was going to drop to 30 degrees!!
I knew they would not survive THAT!
So, I created a rice sock for thermal heat.
The second night starting at about 7:00pm, as the temps were dropping back down, I covered them back up and starting putting the rice sock in, changing position on soil and re-heating it every hour until I went to bed at midnight.
Uncovered the next day when temp was at 45 degrees and sun was out.
Then repeated this process the next night (which was the last night of the freezing).
They survived!! But I'm worried they're damaged.
Any advice on how to help them recover would be greatly appreciated!